Privacy concerns from [split] AF Hall of Shame (Post Edition)

[Angrboda]

I think "your information is used internally only when necessary " infers exactly that. Monitoring people's activities on other forums is clearly EXTERNAL. The example given, keeping IP addresses, is germain, I can see the application because it can directly lead to a" conviction" for sock puppeting. I can't see the need to see what people are saying on other forums.

I think you're misinterpreting that clause. To my mind, that simply means that the information will be used for the internal, i.e. staff access only, purposes. That does include the investigation of a member's behavior elsewhere. Tibbs and staff have done a good job in making the rules keyed more on the explicit behaviors rather than based on inferring what the intent of the poster is. However, intent, and context, as factors in administering a forum, can never be totally eliminated. The goal is to minimize the amount of subjective judgement involved, but judging intent from context is likely always going to be a necessary part of administering a forum. And that includes context that extends beyond the forum's borders. In this case, specifically, I suspect the motivation was that you were suspected of being duplicitous, with the aim of manipulating discussions, members, and the forum as a whole; looking at your other activity elsewhere might give some indication as to whether your behavior elsewhere supported such a theory, or supported an alternative hypothesis. Your behavior was inconsistent with the behavior of even liberal theists we've come to know; and Rayaan's view on it, as a Muslim who has interfaced with Christians may have furnished him his own wisdom on the matter. So, I think you're misunderstanding that clause. It doesn't mean the information collected will only be collected from internal sources, only that its use - not collection - will be limited to staff deliberations, decisions, and as support for confirming the appropriateness of specific staff actions. Staff, in my view, may use both internal and external information gathered to perform their duties, it's only the restriction on the *usage* of that information that is specified must be kept internal, i.e. limited to administrative duties, discussions, and decisions.

It's possible Rayaan went a little overboard because he was bored. It's also possible he uses such researches for his own amusement, and not solely to further the interests of the forum. However, on the basis of the information available to you and me, I don't think this conclusion can be confidently drawn. Rayaan has, at least, implied that his original motivation was to collect information which might be useful in coming to administrative decisions regarding your presence and conduct on this forum. Not having access to what's in staff discussions, and more importantly, what's in Rayaan's head, I'm compelled to give him the benefit of the doubt - not because I'm sympathetic or being charitable, but because that is the strongest conclusion that I, personally, can draw, based on my understanding of things. To my view, the conclusion that Rayaan was behaving improperly by collecting the information cannot be rationally and logically justified; as a matter of reason, I must settle for the innocent conclusion because, in my view, reason demands it. I do not have sufficient confidence that "I know" otherwise to go beyond that conclusion, that Rayaan's conduct may have been and could have been entirely innocent and within the limits proscribed for him as an administrator.